Canada’s Trudeau returns home after Trump meeting without assurances that tariffs are off the table

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after his meeting with Donald Trump without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

After the leaders’ hastily arranged dinner Friday night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trudeau spoke of “an excellent conversation” but offered no details. Trump said in a Truth Social post later Saturday that they discussed “many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address.”

For issues in need of such cooperation, Trump cited fentanyl and the “Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration,” fair trade deals “that do not jeopardize American Workers” and the U.S. trade deficit with its ally to the north.

Trump asserted that the prime minister had made “a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation” of American families from fentanyl from China reaching the United States through its neighbors. The U.S., he said, “will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic.”

The Republican president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January.

U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Canadian officials say they are ready to make new investments in border security.

Trudeau called Trump after the Republican’s social media posts about the tariffs last Monday and they agreed to meet, according to a official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss detail of the private talks. The official said other countries are calling Canadian officials to hear how about how the meeting was arranged and to ask for advice.

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